A month or so has passed since my first post-summer report and today I bring news of the first snowfall at base here in the Niseko area.

Yes, the base village area here is covered in a nice new fluffy layer of snow, with around 5cm of it around where I am. It's all looking winter-mode all of a sudden and feeling nice and chilly as well with the thermometer showing me a temperature just creeping above the zero mark.

At the moment there is lots of cloud around but there have been some glimpses of the sun as well from time to time.

We can't expect this snow to stick around of course - warming up a bit from tomorrow and probably more sun than snow for the second half of the week - but the first snow in village is always one of those events to celebrate every year!

Preparations for the coming season continue apace.

The first ski lifts hope to get moving on Saturday 22nd November.

Niseko Now updates will get more regular over the coming weeks before clicking into 'daily' when the lifts start.